What is the festival of the noma?

Correctly spelled "prairie noma", the festival originates from a legend:

The legend is that "noma" is a very persistent virus that can only be destroyed by burning and prairieing it with fire. In addition, it is believed that by "prairie-launching the chancre", people can seek to get rid of illnesses and disasters, have a good harvest, and get a good start for the new year. On this day, the children of farming families would prepare firewood early and cut bundles of artemisia grass with scythes on the barren mountains, and the children would compete to see who could bear hardships and stand hard work if they cut more firewood.

Customs of the prairie noma festival

In the northwest of China, the twenty-third of the first month of every year is the "prairie noma festival", and there is a folk saying "every year on the twenty-third of the first month, every family prairie noma! ". In ancient times, people were very respectful of fire, which was considered pure and could cure all diseases.

Every night on this day, every household in the countryside would light a bonfire in front of their house, and the firewood had to be collected from outside, not from their own house, to symbolize the meaning of gathering wealth. In addition, people should organize celebrations, happy from the fire across, across the fire when the mouth also said: "a prairie dry, two prairie net, three prairie life shall not be sick", so as to bless their own life hundred diseases.